There is no such thing as a moderate Christian Conservative. That's like saying there is an Austin Maxi somewhere with street cred.

It just ain't happening.

Even the least sociopathic ones have bigot written through them like Blackpool rock - all the way up to westboro baptists who attacked service people's funerals to such an extent the funeral cars ended up with protective convoys of bikers and off duty cops and in some cases gravestones were desecrated. Aka the "God hates fags" brigade.

Personally people like her and Jimmy Jihadi are lucky. If I was in charge of immigration they'd be taken behind a small shed and ole yeller'd. Save the world any more problems it frankly doesn't need.

Re: you support the rape of a 16 yr old

May I remind *you* that the police last year said that if the old cretin was still alive he'd have been investigated and charged because there was many more than one person came forward to state he was a sweeper of the chocolate chimney with a penchant for underage boys.

To be blunt - there has to be an avalanche of evidence on something for the British police to even suggest they might have considered looking into it (they've abandoned rape cases with witnesses AND perfect dna evidence - everything bar a confession (sans use of desk drawer)) so on the balance of that I'm perfectly happy to consider him a gay Jimmy Saville.

Re: you support the rape of a 16 yr old

Sigh

Just how long have you lived in the UK?

The Police have an interest in protecting two things. Their pensions and their families - in that order. I learned that at 13 years old.

Other than that it's all lip service and nelsoning (I see no pedo priests - nor one notable pedo prime minister (Ted the Ped)), despite the first complaints against him being in 1981!). I should probably remind you that Ted was white, the priests were white so I find it odd you fixate on the Muslims..

Re: PS

Ever seen a modern car crash tested against a modern 4x4? Doesn't matter whether you have crumple zones there either - the engine will be sat on your broken tibias before you even have time to start coughing up blood. It's actually pretty terrifying to watch.

The bloody things should be banned except where provably necessarily and they certainly shouldn't be driven by 25 year old girls, all of 5ft nothing who can't see over the dashboard to steer (think Philo Beddows mom in Any Which Way but Loose, but hold the yoda) who like nothing more than doing their lippy at 60mph on country lanes.

Re: In less than two weeks..

As I stated. It would have the same performance as a 1300 hyundai accent *if* it had a 5 speed box.

Its *actual* fuel consumption is actually better than the Accents Kia relative (last tank was 32mpg).

Most people who look after their cars *still* do a 1 year/6000 oil change *despite* what the manual says and a car we had based on 12000 mile changes was in such good nick mechanically when Vauxhall got it back their engineers phoned us to ask why.

Because it was run in properly and serviced religiously at 6000. It also did better than the published mpg.

As for mpg I would not be surprised if I could get 40mpg out of it with a couple of small mods. A sump heater and eco driving plus slightly higher tyre pressures.

You're right the mark I was lethargic. But the II had a few more hp, better torque from a 9.1 head and different ratios (almost identical to the Accent) and if it were geared identical it *would* be faster or equal to 60, as it is the figure for a II is 15 seconds, an Accent 12.2. The B series has a better torque curve with both a lower rpm torque and hp max.

I've had 3 classics and 2 modern cars and without fail the ones that let me down are the modern cars. The two Sceptres and the SD1 never missed a beat. They all have better visibility than modern cars, they're arguably more comfortable (I'll admit they're not as ergonomic) , and from personal experience I'll take a classic any time.

More to the point, if something *does* go wrong I can get to it and fix it. Not like the Kia Rio IAT sensor that's an inch off the bulkhead, secured by Phillips screws, known to be a failure point and is impossible to remove.

The Accent has been in the garage for 6 months and has been fixed (bodged) by swapping solid lifters for hydraulics, now the garage only has to sort out the intake manifold leak they've caused after the 15 attempts to get this modern car working. That's after I replaced most of the sensors and then the garage replaced them again because the readings were garbage and Hyundai so engineering lead in the UK came to try and sort it.. And couldn't.

And as for 60mpg out of a 1.8 petrol they saw you coming. My parents brand new 1.6 diesel was supposed to do 70mpg. It barely manages 52mpg, worse than the previous identical model they had which did 56 on a 60mpg official rating.

PS

In less than two weeks..

I'll be buying a "new" car.

It's an executive car, not exactly quick but almost exactly the same size as my Hyundai Accent 2005 hatch (a small family car apparently). A saloon. With a bigger boot, better interior space in the same size body, front wheel drive - 32-35mpg. 1.8 litre transverse engine. Oh and unlike many modern cars it doesn't have electric windows but it DOES have a temperature and oil pressure gauge.. And if it had a 5 speed box it would perform *better* than my Accent. Oh and it doesn't have the massive blind spots the Accent has.. an interesting idea called windows, you might have heard of them (not the Jagdpanther vision blocks fitted to current cars).

Designed by a bloke born in the Ottoman empire.

Anyone guessed it yet?

A 1971 Wolseley 18/85 II

A car that was designed basically in 1965 and is almost exactly the same dimensions and performance (if you stuck in an extra gear) as a car designed in 2000 - it's even got the same final drive ratio. But it has a bigger boot, more passenger room (bar headroom), better suspension and ride (to be fair that's not exactly a technical challenge) and doesn't spend 6 months in a garage because even the MANUFACTURER can't fix it.

That's embarrassing.

We have gone backwards in almost every respect in 40 years of "progress".

And then they come up with electric cars....

And as for range.. Remember if I pull in to get petrol in the Landcrab and I'm on fumes; I'm filled up and gone in about 7 minutes. When you can equal refuelling an electric to refuelling a 40 year old car, and *all* of its cleanly generated you can come and see me.

So I'll be seeing you in about 40 years then..

I wonder incidentally what would happen if someone cattle prodded a Tesla ala Demolition Man or BOFH. I suspect it'd make sugar in the tank look positively affectionate.

Re: Defend Digital Me, a children's privacy campaign group

Nice one Gordon.

Slight problem.

From what you've just said she'll be just the type who'll trust anyone right up to the point the ex sinks a carving knife into her.

If kids are constantly controlled they stay kids, they don't grow up because they aren't allowed to. They're abysmal as adults as making decisions and reading people because they've never needed to. Welcome to being me - borderline sociopathic parents who tried to control everything and were manipulative. Not a good childhood.

That's above and beyond all this plainchant whining about sex education. Ditto things like the HPV vaccine. Personally having watched my partner die slowly of cervical cancer at age 22 when the vaccine would have protected her it drives me mad when idiots whine that my kid is 12, she no fucky fucky, the whole point being she will eventually and be protected.. And not die slowly and horribly on the No Hope Service, and that wasn't the worst of it. Any parent who refuses should be done for child abuse on the spot.

As to watching kids showering??!! If you or I did that it'd be a quick trip to the paedofinder general shortly followed by a discrete shanking. How is it it's OK for a school to do this? I am more and more sure that people should have to pass a test before theyre allowed to breed. Any school that has cameras in changing rooms, toilets or the like should be forced to rip them out and any footage should be taken and destroyed.

We never had cameras in a school and I imagine most of the parents would have thrown a fit if their kids were being surveilled - how is that different from being in a dictatorship - it's just one step from creepy "protection" to something much nastier.

It almost reads like one of the nastier Torchwood plots. I wonder if the education secretary has a cyberlady in his wardrobe? Oh wait that's Amber Rudd.

IF cctv is to be used, playground, classrooms corridors. At most.

ZERO tolerance of bullying - two strikes and you're out of the school system permanently.

And just as an aside. FFS stop with the "everyone gets a prize" crap. Life is not like that, never has been, never will be.

PS: dear schools, while you are "educating" our kids and teaching them nothing less than utter garbage (most teenagers I've talked to think Reinhard Heydrich was a member of Genesis) can you PLEASE teach them to cross a frigging road. You get 11 bloody years, it can't be too much to ask!

Re: What's the problem?

You've never been on a field trip to either South Wales or Northern Scotland then?

When the sheep weren't watching carefully for the perfect moment to punt you over or into hill/cliff/MOD facility electric fence, they were trying to grab your food (and I use the term under advisement) by main force.

Which in itself is odd if you think about it since a sheep's overriding ambition in life is being found dead, upside down with its legs in the air, in a clarty* hole.

*northern dialect word for slightly muddy bit*. Everyone else considers it to mean "that half mud/half slurry bit that just swallowed a 5ft6 teenage girl up to her shoulders". It didn't take too long to get her out, after we managed to stop laughing hysterically at an irate head poking out of the ground.

*muddy translates as "a large goopy pit in the middle of the path just deep enough for you to disappear up to your waist"

In Australia this ecological niche is filled by the Kangaroos - an animal that can kick your intestines out through your ears in one go. Male 'roo don't like male humans especially during mating season - what they think of female humans hasn't been imparted to me..

Remember...

This suggestion couldn't be more idiotic if it tried. Did TBL have a TIA and nobody noticed?

As someone else has said this'll give Amber Spud and her successors power over the Internet (even if it's just in their deranged little heads) and that is the sort of bad idea that gets people killed.

Oooh, we want a trade deal with China - so legitimate protesters online re Tibet for example suddenly go very quiet. Some girl is going to be kicked out of the country so the rapist and murderer she escaped from to the UK can get his claws into her (sound familiar Theresa May, you remember, the one who's extradition you frigging had broadcasted on the BBC just to *make sure* he knew she was coming). Oh look, her supporters websites are suddenly going up and down like a whores drawers.

Did you play too much rugby as a kid Tim? Cos it sounds to me like you've a case of Dribbling Footballers Syndrome, and in that suggestion I'm being kind. The only other thing I can think of is you've picked up a nasty dose of FHPD (Fscking Huge Payoff Disease). Please share, interested people want to know..

I don't disagree that social media is the scum of the earth - but giving control to the deputy scum of the earth is not much of an improvement especially when they already think they've divine (more like duh-vine) right to rule as it is..

Re: Nude Petanque

Best cars we ever had. Better than the Mercedes - one of which ate its turbo in 1500 miles. The 2.5 automatic did 100,000 miles with nothing more than services and tyres.

I bought one myself for £600 that was doing OK until two years ago when wiring gremlins and stuff started showing up - and with a sump heater, waiting, and pulse and coast it managed a regular 28-30mpg urban - the rating was 22 with the auto.

A shame they stopped bringing them over here - big Renault/Citroën and Peugeot most comfortable cars I've ever been in. Just don't try and tow a 16ft caravan at 85mph - I was driving after dad's hernia op and we hit a long hill at 60, halfway down it had crept to 85 and started snaking. The cruise control went on after that.

Re: Nude Petanque

Sigh. We were tourists, driving either the cream of English, a Vauxhall Cavalier, or the cheese, various Ford Cortinas. You really have never understood the concept of suicidal if you haven't tooled around north Wales in a Ford Cortina with no other tapes than Cliff bloody Richard!

Still must have rubbed off, after 87 we had 4 Renaults in a row - two 25 and two Safrane.

My parents have still got those old balls - as smooth now as 30 years ago, and they've still only been used about twice..

That's a thought actually - if we subverted all the US radio stations to play Cliff Richard on a constant loop - probably have the same effect as VX gas, and be soooo much cheaper.

Has to be said I've never seen the point of swinging, usually more flakes than Cadbury.

Nude Petanque

What could possibly go wrong?

Years ago we got a cheap set of those (plastic balls), it probably would have been in France.. And to be blunt you could have used the things in a cannon as effective and weighty ammunition. You could probably have driven over them with a tank and they'd not have taken a scratch.

I hate to imagine what would happen if a couple were getting friendly and someone got one in the love spuds. La Vasectomy Francais..

Still better than the couple banging away in the long grass who had a bad experience with a Caterpillar crawler.. Driven by the husband.

Re: Seems to me

Do you not watch tv. Facebook executives flat out *admitted* and were proud of the fact they helped elect Donnie Dickwit, if it's still on BBC iplayer a documentary called "Trump voters: 1 year on" - which showcased a whole bunch of quite frankly meatspace Cuylers and closet racists. The model girl was the highlight - about as self obsessed as a spinning top and not all that bright.

Course I doubt the arsebook executives are quite so proud now.. FBI investigations tend to dent the ego.

Go for it BlackBerry

Any one who sues arsebook is a friend of mine. Not to mention I would be entirely unsurprised if Facebook and the rest were guilty of dodgy practice - they helped elect Donnie Dickwit after all. How much dodgier can you get?

Not as good as the poor French sod who cycled past some American and British squaddies involved in picking up and moving Sherman tank inflatables - apparently the poor guys eyes bugged out of his head and one of the British apparently said "these Americans, very strong..", in French, at which point monseiur peddled the hell out of it at high speed and the squaddies collapsed in hysterics. History does not mention whether monseiur was more terrified of Americans with a 15 tonne benchpress or British who could speak French..

Re: In other news; 1st April moved forward by a month ....

Fair point but to be blunt - Micronesia probably has a bigger defence budget than the UK and half of it is sinking into the sea.

What I can't work out is this. How has no one noticed that in comparison to the QEs or Vanguard the modern "navy" is using what amount to coracles, but if you adjust the prices and compare they're paying 10x as much for the coracles.. Running Windows for Warships no less and half the weapons won't fit, don't work or possibly don't exist. How did we get to this point?

And I really wouldn't worry about Putin McNukeyface. So he drops a nuke on London - what he doesn't own here (and everywhere else) the Chinese do - so he certainly doesn't gain, he's busy quietly buying up farmland (even in the US) so it's kind of pointless from that angle. About the only place he might be able to nuke to a net benefit would be the Galapagos and I wouldn't want to be him afterwards.

Putin has been relying on people being idiots for almost his whole life, sadly America and to a lesser extent western Europe have made that a perfect strategy and I don't see it changing any time soon.

Re: question

I'd be more worried about Mossad than Donnie Dickwits little minions. The CIA tends to think planning and subtlety are for other people (course it doesn't help when your British contact is a certain Harold Adrian Russell Philby..). Mossad are scary even in comparison to spetnaz/oznaz.

Re: Why were inverted V12s popular with the Germans?

It's partly for packaging reasons and partly also accessibility and survivability. It's easier to replace fluids from an external tank with a feed pump than spend time mucking about and armoured lines and tanks are lighter than armouring a whole crankcase - you can also have aux lubrication circuits when you need them.

IE almost all aero prop engines have two entirely separate ignition systems (as did the BRM V16, bad idea). Mostly they run on both (which also aids power) but if one distributor or magneto went south, you've still got a running engine. The A10 ground attack aircraft has no less than three hydraulic-electric control circuits, AND a fully manual rod & joint type which one American was very happy for when her plane got badly shot up - she managed to get it back home but I'd imagine she wasn't feeling all that happy about 48 hours later - a lot of pulled muscles, manual means manual on those. No hydraulic pressure probably means no flaps or brakes either..

Re: 9th largest air force in the world at the time

Then there was Dr Strangelove.

The guys in the bomber and rigging up that set weren't allowed to get with 100 yards of a B52. So several of them having served on B29/B50 types in the AF they decided to take those configurations and work it out from there, using first principles.

All well and good - except they apparently nailed the console set up and dialogue so well, the AF had a conniption, thought they'd been spying and sicced the FBI/CIA onto the people concerned. Poor set designers had all sorts of trouble before they convinced the pointy haired generals it was just coincidence..

Not if you want to live you won't, they had a nasty "sabre dance" like stall problem on take off, killed a lot of pilots including two experten recently - it was so unusual it took powerful computer modelling to work out what was happening.

Back in the day no one had the foggiest how to solve it - pilots were just taught to climb out very shallow - otherwise it'd lose air flow, stall and drop out of the sky backwards, not a survivable experience in most cases.

Re: Why were inverted V12s popular with the Germans?

The packaging is better with the sump/crank upwards (the widest part of the engine is towards the widest part of the fuselage. It's a reason why flat-12 and wide V were used in formula 1 - easy to build aero around.

The reason you don't get hydro lock and a very expensive set of flying piston rods is the DB engine was a dry sump design - car engines are wet sump, invert one while it's running and expensive things happen quite quickly.

Specific to the 109 it also allowed a 20/30mm motorcannon to fire through the hollow crank and for two 151 to be placed above the flat deck of the "sump". The toasty motor kept the guns warm (its - 30c at 35,000ft) & the narrow mounting of most of the weapons (compared to a spit for example) made it much easier to put shells through a target in a nice tight pattern. Win-win unless you were the other guy.

However it wasn't all sweetness and light. The canopy opened to the side, so forget about getting out in a hurry, the undercarriage had all the design flair of an Austin Allegro (although it's understandable why it was done that way, to save weight) - and the wing tabs turned the thing into basically a giant 1700hp vibrator on fast sharp turns (to the point that some pilots wired them shut). A good pilot was roughly on parity until about late 43, an inexperienced one would be dug out of the permafrost after about a week.

The engine had mechanical fuel injection so it could be bunted when a Merlin would half stall in a cloud of black smoke (partly solved by miss shillings orifice). But being early FI and being 6 litres larger than the Merlin it drank fuel and gave only a 20 minute combat radius over the UK.

Being higher compression than the Merlin - they didn't like artificial petrol either and there are many unexplained accidents were aces just disappeared or had engine failure possibly attributable to fuel that would make 2** cut with Guinness seem like a good idea.

Incidentally if anyone ever tries to sell you purple petrol I'd not bother - they used to use it in racing cars post war but don't leave it overnight - it dissolves the fuel tank.

Re: Excuse me ..

Wrong.

For some unknown reason the bf109 and if I remember rightly the bf110 were both referred to in that way officially until the end of the war. The Me210/410 was designated after Dr Willi (and he probably wished they weren't) but it wasn't backdated for some reason.

The only bf109 you'll find with an Me109 build plate would be some few that were repaired/refurbished on the eastern front. In Estonia I think.

If they offer you the model with the Heinkel engine run away - flying deathtrap. Having flown both some German pilots are said to have preferred the Buchon (with a late model pressure carb Merlin) to the original.

I'd suggest the fairings (bulges) at the back of the cylinder banks are for the timing chain runs for the overhead cams.

The standard motor for these was an inverted v12 DB6xx often latterly fitted with MW50 and or the ha-ha Gerat (ha-ha device) which provided nitrous oxide or laughing gas boost.

And just as an aside - if someone makes another Meteor based car it *isn't* a merlin. A Meteor is a n/a merlin block with a totally different (2 valve) head design that'd be hard pressed to make 650hp displacing 24 litres. A Merlin is either 1 or 2 stage supercharged with a "4 valve" head displacing 27 litres. I know, nerdtastic but it bugs the hell out of me.

Re: I can't help but feel...

Re: I see the anti-electric brigade have shown up

Solar has mostly reached cost parity with all other forms of electric generation. It depends on the country you live in.

No it hasn't - the only parity it's reached is the amount of subsidies it's taken even to get to this point. (my parents have highly subsidised solar, and I have a small system)

Electric vehicles DO NOT suffer performance issues under normal, load, i.e. no matter how cold it gets or how much accessories you use. (polar conditions are irrelevant.

Bollocks. They don't suffer from cold performance issues because when it gets cold the batteries automatically transfer some of the power to a battery heating system - mainly so sub average cretins like you don't notice an issue. Every battery chemistry hates the cold (especially nimh & li-ion under 0c). The old milk floats used to use something like 30% more power in the cold cos of motor & lubricant drag and cold miserable batteries, lead acid like to be a toasty 35-60c

ALL equip struggles under polar conditions) If you have owned one and it did, then you need to take it back to the dealer and have it fixed, like any other new car that doesn't run right from the factory. That's NOT an engineering issue, it's a factory QC issue.

Electric vehicles pollute less than ICE vehicle. Period. Under any contrived scenario. Stating that old canard about power plants and materials or subsidies makes you look stupid and was debunked years ago.

If I run a skyactiv motor on petrol I pollute depending on what the engine does with that petrol.

If I have a Muskkretinwagon and I run it off solar then all the pollution comes from the build of the solar panels system in its entirety & that's it.

However if I have a Muskkretinwagon and I'm charging from mains electric generated by a bunch of lignite fuelled generating stations (ie Germany until fairly recently) I'm polluting from the lignite, from the production and transportation of my new Muskkretinwagon, and in your case from being a brainless waste of air who is producing much more co2 than is worthwhile for any use you might be to the human race in general.

You feed a car dirty generation you have a dirtier vehicle than a conventional ICE car. That's fact.

The two best ideas already posted where to put solar and wind on the roof and try to get as much of the fleet converted as possible. It does not have to be all 49,000 nor does it have to be all at once.

And you made my point - if slathering the planet in solar panels and wasting limited resources scrapping every single vehicle was the best way then yes, go ahead. It's not.

There are factories in Indonesia still using steam engines for power that were built in the 1870s (one was actually sold new to a relative of mine) and they're in perfect condition, better than factory - running on high quality smokeless coal (when available). The point you are missing is pollution over the lifetime of a product. If a steam engine has run almost continuously for 147 years how many replacements has it out lived. If a Wolseley 18/85 has been going since 1970 and the average ownership of a new car is 3 years, that's 15 and a bit cars that weren't built because someone was using that instead of buying some euro box that'd be terminally ill by age 11. Everything has an ecological cost (even solar panels) - the longer you use it and the more you upgrade and modify it as the years pass, the more the cost is amortised.

I am continually amazed that some usually very bright people here are thick as bricks when it comes to solar, wind and electric cars.

Re: No second hand market

I've tested one of those - I don't know what creature it was designed for ergonomically but it wasn't humans.

It's the weirdest driving position I've ever seen - I'm 5"11 and I was peering through the steering wheel - I sat in an Alfa Romeo concept car from the 1950s once and that was safe and comfortable by comparison. When someone says that you know there's issues.

Unless it's someone trying to cull down the electric car types by having them stove their face in every time they do an emergency stop..

The solutions to these problems are easy, most of them have already been listed. That isn't the point.

The point is there is NO sensible reason why we need to build a WHOLE infrastructure basically from scratch across practically every single country on the planet - at massive cost in both greenhouse gasses and money (what you think charging stations made of concrete are green - wake up and smell the co2 (concrete produces it as it sets and for YEARS later)) when we already have a system in place and all we have to do swap in a new production system (solar reactors) to a fully installed and operational distribution system to vehicles that are capable of using it with better performance variables across every possible field - including (when someone takes those TFSI petrols out the back and shoots them) pollution.

Make a standard for a transmission/engine interface plate system so I can go get a nice modern diesel and pop it into an Austin 1800 when the E series finally pops its clogs. Or better the 2200 110hp replaced by a 1600 HDI no waste, less pollution, better economy. Tatra did it for at least 40 years and may still be doing it - they'd upgrade cars that came for repairs by pulling old parts, popping them on the line and replacing the bits as if it was a new build - voila T2-603 from a T603 in about 20 components - instead of a whole car.

Make internals easily replaceable and then you can make bodyshells that last alot longer - because unlike the Trabant you can upgrade internals so much easier you can keep a bodyshell for 40 years that (for example) started with an 65hp 4 spd A-Series lump and now is happily running a 6 speed & Ecoboost with twice the power (or even a little Hyundai 3 banger diesel) , and still looks good.

Adjust body manufacture so like the old Triumph Herald the panels are bolt on and off - easier repairs and replacements for wear or for new styling updates. Include/exclude lighting units so upgrading from halogen to LED is easier or harder depending on skill. Give certain panels smart capabilities - bonnet edge sensors for ice, a Bluetooth transceiver for locating the vehicle, biometric locks (hell, a friend put a pin lock on his own car as a college project 20 years ago)

But no, it all has to be "electric and green and new"

I've some news

Batteries predate even the earliest ICE and actually set the first speed records. Not new.

RWD has been around since year dot (Tesla 3) and is less efficient and more dangerous than FWD. Not new.

Putting the displays out of the line of sight (Tesla) is so far beyond stupid even US car companies stopped that before the 1920s. Not new (but really dangerous)

Electric motors - again with predating ICE engines. Not new.

Getting electric from NG/lignite/Coal - CVN plants - not green. Not new either.

In short we have two options in the context of this discussion. Artificially manufactured petrol/diesel: or electric.

In one we have to make ONE single change in order for it to work. And it'll get its raw materials from the pollution already present.

In the other we have to basically build the whole lot out from scratch, retrofit existing systems and arguably retrain people. Causing more pollution, wasted resources, time and usually half assed solutions.

I'm going with ICE with hopefully some of the tech I've listed above, even my 93 year old grandmother could figure the sensible answer.

Re: No second hand market

You of course didn't read the part where I mentioned this might not apply to electrics. In the case you quote it doesn't. In conversions/retrofits it probably does.

It is *certainly* illegal to retrofit an ICE engine or ICE hybrid with remote start and the legality/insurance is dubious even if it's a manufacturer fitted item. Some insurers wouldn't bat an eyelid if it was related to an accident - some would, to quote Dan Halen, "bend you over, and rape the money out of you".

If the engine is running someone has to be attending the vehicle unless it's on private land such as a farm. Carparks, driveways pretty much anywhere if the motor is running you need to be sitting in it in easy reach of the controls.

Re: No second hand market

Umm that wasn't promoting ev - that was promoting a feature US premium cars have had since I was in nappies and at least one eastern Europe car manufacturer has been doing since 1959 and probably earlier (Tatra) - not to mention their 603 had a cd of something like .35 when western manufacturers were still arguing about whether OHV was a step too far, and starting handles ruled the world (not that those were a bad thing). You know (or probably don't actually) the days when the car was more aerodynamic in reverse and two speeds were "good enough for grandpa so they're good enough for you"

I'm glad you're looking forward to your new Muskkretinwagon - I would however suggest you look into the mix of generation in your area and hope fervently you're not like the guy (Hong-Kong I think) who got hit for pollution charges IN COURT because all the electric came from coal generation and therefore was about as eco friendly as a 350,000 mile Ford Orion CVH running on supermarket petrol with half 20w50 and half sawdust "keeping all the magic smoke in".

The right tool for the right job. There's no use case that I can think of that a Tesla fits - other than to be owned by a pretentious wazzock..

Re: No second hand market

Notwithstanding the fact that an ICE vehicle from 1967 with a remote start kit fitted and thermostatic air con can do that, my old Humber Sceptre from 63 could do it with the right upgrades... Although probably not as accurately..

And there is also the fact that technically what your car just did might have invalidated your insurance (on the basis you are not allowed to leave a running vehicle unattended, granted electric is a grey area in this case) it certainly would if a remote start facility caused an accident.. A start while in gear for example.. Or someone getting into the car as shouldn't.

Re: Case study

I walked to school alone from the age of 7 to 12 along just such a road when crumple zones were tiny gleams in BL engineers eyes. I never got hit by a car, never got jumped by a Jimmy-Saville-alike and I ACTUALLY KNOW HOW TO CROSS A ROAD.

These days the speed limit is 30mph and you can't move for mommy cretins doing le mans starts in Porsche Cayennes & X5s driven by people who think lane discipline is a boy band and double declutching is something to do with a handbag.

I'd love to know the percentage of parents who survived serious road accidents 20/30 years ago whose spaddy little brats are the ones who walk out 2 feet in front of me when it's my right of way, or expect me to stop from 60mph in 3ft (and that includes some of the adults, would you believe)...

I've never hit anyone, nor would I ever want to, but I'd have a damn sight less sympathy for them if they've just wombled out into the road without a care or braincell in the world.

I did suggest that cars be retrofitted with MK108 autocannons, badly driven 4x4 for the removal of, but the idea didn't get much traction (much like the badly driven 4x4s).

If people don't know how to cross a road or judge a cars road speed they shouldn't be out on their own. Kids should be trained - we were - and I don't know any of my generation who'd be more interested in their smartphone than the Audi that's about to turn their brains into a jackson pollack.

Case study

Where I live there's 24 flats, all with 230v mains. Of those only 2 that I know of have rcd capable modern electric distribution cabs (one fitted after the electrics blew the female tenant across the room) , the rest were wired up when Allegros roamed the earth.

22 flats have cars associated of which most are scrappage fodder.. So most will be chopped in and chopped up despite the fact they're perfectly usable - to get some form of Muskkretinwagon.

Then you'll need outside charging points (some chance with the "management company") at three times retail because of the "mc" above.

THEN unless you want a fireball of epic proportions you'll need to redo all the backhaul wiring so it can cope and fit modern control boxes to 18 flats..

And if you manage to do all that, and don't manage to electrocute the first toddler who sees a charger (because we *will* get cheap ass crap chargers, or more likely a flip top unsecured always on mains sockets). There isn't enough electrical power to go around if any reasonable amount of people do it and alot of the generation is dubious environmentally to be extremely tactful about it.

Whats worse everyone else will be tooling around in TFSI audi which are more polluting and dangerous to human life (microparticulates) than the average clapped out BX Diesel - that they got when the smug gits went electric.

The best bit is the politicians bash diesels - co2 goes up - politicians decide to fit catalytic converters - co2 actually goes up as did health problems from car exhaust (more benzenes and other nasties in exhaust).

It has been proven that we can take pollutants from the atmosphere and using solar reactors make a petrol/diesel analogue that can be formulated cleaner. We already have an entire infrastructure designed for these liquid fuels and vehicles to use them.. All we need do is upscale the solar reactor tech which actually makes the atmosphere cleaner as it works. Are we doing it? No.

We're letting the idiots run the asylum. In order to use electric cars we have to scrap or convert (to make a hollow laughing) the older vehicles, we have to upgrade almost every single wiring system in the country, upgrade and build out generation capacity (which will take years, and you can bet won't be clean Thorium generation), make the chargers idiot proof (which is a decades long project in itself.. Hmm fast charger, torrential rain, wet hands and a hangover, what could possibly go wrong...)

Then you've got the crappy range, the fall out on crime and driver safety (especially women) - on top of that the prices of replacement batteries and how the vehicle will react in a crash.. As they get older I predict they'll get worse (they all do).

And on top of all that you've got various idiots tooling around trying to make them autonomous and deranged mothers trying to reduce every speed limit to 5mph because their mindless teen went vis-a-vis with a Leyland Optare while engrossed in Assbook and lost (and the gene pool thanks you profusely my dear). Despite the fact that 55-60mph is peak efficiency generally and we have far too many people alive as it is..

There is absolutely nothing that warrants using an electric vehicle over all the other possible options - but oddly enough the people selling them haven't told you that have they?

PS My next car would be a DKW two stroke if I could afford it. And even with that I consider myself green in comparison with the teslidiots.

Re: I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often

Wow. 4 downvotes. Ill educated cockwombles for the win. Still why would we want knowledge or facts to get in the way of greentardery - that's OK..

"And when food prices climb 30% in a cycle of seasons and those of the Volt whine louder than their chariots; a great chorus will rise upon the land, as if a million voices rose in derision "we told you so..". And the farmer will pour his not-carcinogens into the tank for the third time.. Saying "it is done, and so will you little idiots be if'n I get hold of you.." ".

You, um, do of course know there are other pollinators kicking around out there? You didn't? Well color me surprised.

Re: Beesmode

Much more likely to be either European type or possibly a high F hybrid between European and African. It turns out that while F1 strains between European and African bees are still aggressive to the point of psychotic; the further you breed to European bees the calmer the resulting hives while still having a higher yield.

Kind of depressing to think that one berk removing the queen control frames (don't remember the terminology) caused all this trouble - and he didn't even get the blame.

Re: I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often

Re: Who keeps bees?

Also helps with keeping the hives cool. If they get too hot while sealed for transport whole hives can die. Not to mention be somewhat annoyed when they are unloaded at the other end if they're a little too warm.

Re: I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often

For the fifty millionth time. Stop. Blaming. Monsanto.

It's not Monsanto product that causes the problem - it's the generics that have crappy formulation control, and probably a fair percentage of farmers who couldn't calculate a /ph rate if their life depended on it.

There are two formulations that don't noticeably harm bees - Monsanto's and a used to be generic from eastern Europe somewhere that is now Monsantos factory for making the stuff.

It's the same problem as with 2,4D and dioxin. Make 2,4D properly and the dioxin level will be miniscule - contract it out to sub average cretins like the US military did in Vietnam and dioxin goes through the roof and babies get born looking like something out of a Steven King novel..

Oh and for the record if Glyphosate is banned I hope you like blackgrass flavoured bread because the only way to control it and other weeds... Is Glyphosate or 3x the active of other herbicides - really great for the environment.

Funny story - fluffy brained eco-whinger was sitting in a meeting at an agrochemical company, howling about how a cat had died that just *might* possibly have eaten birds contaminated with glyphosate - and how it had to be banned at once.. So one of the people there asked for her car keys and she handed them over confused. Then asked why? Well cars kill a damn sight more cats than glyphosate ever could - so enjoy your walk home. The point was duly made.

Im not advocating slathering the countryside in agrochemical and there is not a single farmer who would either but which do you want - one application of a herbicide that works - or three applications of one that probably won't with all the extra pollution, soil damage, waste of diesel, waste of resources etc etc.

Oh and before you even draw breath to blame the farmers - be aware that if all of you didn't want perfect food at bankruptcy (not to mention suicide) inducing prices and are busy supporting the RSPB and other cretin-collectives buying up excellent arable land and then promptly either flooding the f*cking lot or covering it on trees there would be less need for agrochemicals and fertilisers because there'd be more land to go round.

And a friendly warning - be careful who you spout this crap to in future because you might find that a steel toecap in the teeth often offends.

Re: Concierge-like healthcare

"To me "concierge-like healthcare" would seem to imply having the janitor take out your tonsils with a Stanley knife in the boiler room."

That'd be a platinum plated improvement over NHS cancer care. Having a vasectomy by your consultant tying your testicles to the back bumper of a Volvo Amazon and flooring it would be better than NHS cancer care..

If you suspect that you have cancer pay private - at least for the diagnosis.

I certainly don't think it's good practice to do same in a house with a 3 year old girl and leave the car unlocked.

Where I come from guns are *not* common & when they are to be found they are either in use or locked up and are almost always sporting guns.

And for the record idiot it is entirely possible for a handgun to go off from shock (like the schoolgirl who got a nice gutshot when her friend dropped his rucksack on the bench and the gun his dad had forgotten went off) or from being sat on or dropped. Some smg were famous for it, the Sten, firing from an open bolt, was more likely to fire by accident than when you wanted it to.

Then there's the "hotshot", stupid even by American standards where you take a handgun or revolver and remove the trigger guard by either just disconnecting it or cutting or grinding it off.. Those had a habit of firing when you looked at them wrong.

I'm no fan of guns being in general circulation but ffs if you are going to have them at least store them properly, out of sight and *especially* away from toddlers.